OK, so if you have the FOTR Original Soundtrack you'll have noticed that the first track, "The Prophecy", is not the music that underscores the prologue in the film, but comes from an earlier draft. Doug Adams' book The Music of the Lord of the Rings contains a CD called the Rarities Archive which has a full version of a similar early draft. I personally think that these earlier drafts have a more 'ancient' feel to them and are generally a bit more awesome. The version in the film contains quite a bit of music that sounds - to me - like it could have come straight out of Parth Galen or another of the Fellowship's adventures.

However, I think there are still some great bits in the film version, and some sections which don't have corresponding sections in the earlier drafts as far as I can tell. So it occurred to me to create a sort of "mega-prologue" which includes the best bits from each version. While I was constructing this, it suddenly seemed like a great idea to make it actually synchronise with the video of the prologue. So I cut and pasted the bits of score together and made sure it made some sort of sense when playing over the visuals. Then I went one step further and actually mixed it together with the existing audio so that it could actually play on top of the visuals, Galadriel and sound effects along with it.

Of course it's not absolutely as simple as all that, as the old score is present in the film audio, so I had to make the new score loud enough to drown it out. I could not always make the old score inaudible, and I also sometimes obscured some of what Galadriel was saying (and in fact I almost drowned her out right at the very beginning because I just love the music so much I wanted to turn it right up, despite the Lothlorien music being so quiet it hardly needed obscuring! )

I've put up the video I created on youtube, and I hope it doesn't get taken down for copyright... but here it is for your listening pleasure! As well as the audio issues I have already mentioned, it does have a watermark in the middle of the picture from the software I used to rip the DVD visuals.

I would love it if you watched it and told me what you think. Are there any bits from the original score you miss? When we first see the Last Alliance, do you think I should have gone with the Gondor music as heard in the Rarities Archive version rather than the more Sauron-esque music from "The Prophecy"? Any bits sound really fantastic/really silly? Would you like to hear my hybrid score in isolation? If nothing else, it's an excuse to hear yet more Shore awesomeness

By the way, from Gollum onwards I've just stuck with what's heard in the film, as the early versions don't really add anything IMO and in many parts are identical to the final version. Then Manwė and Yavanna parted for that time, and Yavanna returned to Aulė; and he was in his smithy, pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Eru is bountiful,' she said. 'Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril.'

'Nonetheless they will have need of wood,' said Aulė, and he went on with his smith-work.

wow, how long did that take you? Definitely worth checking out...
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When you watch a film a lot, it's to "unhear" what you have heard, you know? So that was quite a unique experience, to see the same images, with a different version of the music. It made me re-appreciate both the images and the music again, and for that I thank you!

I know you are looking for specific comments but my musical sense is not that great, so I have a hard time putting into words any kind of insights when it comes to music-talk. I do hope others check out your work here who have a better "ear" than I do who can give you the feedback you are looking for.

I will risk one comment, though, and that is to say that the one section that seemed to me to click better with me in your version here is the way you handled that part with Isildur putting on the Ring and getting betrayed by it. I've not watched the extended version much, so I don't know how much of what you did there is different from the original score, but I liked it!

And I will ask a question, too! How long did it take you to do all of this? It looks and sounds like quite a labor of love to me, so it's obvious you put a lot of effort and thought into it. Thanks for that and for sharing this! Weaver

I will risk one comment, though, and that is to say that the one section that seemed to me to click better with me in your version here is the way you handled that part with Isildur putting on the Ring and getting betrayed by it. I've not watched the extended version much, so I don't know how much of what you did there is different from the original score, but I liked it!

Well That bit is actually from the original version - it's one of those bits I mentioned that don't seem to have a counterpart in the early drafts, and probably wasn't scored at all until Shore came back to do the Extended Edition scenes (and, the way I see it, had more time to write some original music rather than adapting parts of the rest of FOTR, like it sounds during other parts of the prologue! ) The timings on my edit are slightly different (I think it's a bit ahead of the normal version) but it's essentially the same.

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And I will ask a question, too! How long did it take you to do all of this? It looks and sounds like quite a labor of love to me, so it's obvious you put a lot of effort and thought into it. Thanks for that and for sharing this!

Ah well it wasn't much of a project - I had pretty much a whole free day yesterday so I did all the audio throughout that day, and then put the bits together quickly today. What really surprised me, actually, was how easy it was: after I had initially started trying to make sense of it musically - basically just a couple of crossfades to join passages from each version - I played the first couple of minutes I had edited along to the video and was astonished to find how similar the timings were And there's also the matter of my favourite transition - there is a pair of notes in the strings about 50 seconds into "The Prophecy" leading out of a choir phrase that is exactly the same as one of the pairs of notes leading into the History of the Ring theme that plays over the title, which is pretty much exactly the right time! Almost like Shore was planning for something like this to happen (Since that theme has become such iconic music for the titles, I wouldn't have wanted to stick with the non-thematic material from the beginnings of the early drafts to play over that. As it was it was simply an edit screaming to be made )

Anyway, if it sounds like hard work to spend a day poring over 7 minutes of music, it's testament to how talented Howard Shore is that I found it all extremely enjoyable. I will never tire of the material he has written for LOTR Then Manwė and Yavanna parted for that time, and Yavanna returned to Aulė; and he was in his smithy, pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Eru is bountiful,' she said. 'Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril.'

'Nonetheless they will have need of wood,' said Aulė, and he went on with his smith-work.

you're welcome and thanks for the scoop on how you did this!
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The process of working with sound and video and editing is not anything I know anything about, so I don't have any frame of reference for what it takes to pull something like this off.

I also appreciate getting this further explanation from you: "And there's also the matter of my favourite transition - there is a pair of notes in the strings about 50 seconds into "The Prophecy" leading out of a choir phrase that is exactly the same as one of the pairs of notes leading into the History of the Ring theme that plays over the title, which is pretty much exactly the right time! Almost like Shore was planning for something like this to happen."

That actually, kind of, sort of makes sense to me and I did notice that bit but could not have explained it all in terms of what it was that made it so good-- but I do agree that was really cool! And now I know why, thanks!